Sheltering Walls: Change

What do you do when the space you have seems to be too little?  I look around and ponder. Can I rearrange the furniture?  Sometimes, that works.  Can I create new space within the space to make it more practical? There’s a whole history of designing space to make it both practical and beautiful, and sometimes that is what works.  Can I remove some items that are no longer useful to create more available space?  That can be painful.  It requires letting go and accepting change.  Sometimes, that works and creates significant changes in perspective.

I’ve tried all of these approaches to space that has grown too small.  I have found each of them to be the right thing at the right time.  And, I have come to the place, more than once, when none of them works.  Only one thing remains. . .

. . . leaving the space that no longer works for a new one.  I can only say, looking back, that these sorts of changes are finally the most difficult and the most liberating.  The difficulty is not to be minimized nor the liberation to be underestimated.

Sometimes, the best move is move itself–leaving old space, old walls, old securities, old faiths, old relationships, old foundations–all of which have up to that point given us security, hope, and stability.  The move can be deeply painful and for a time leaves us feeling insecure, hopeless and unstable.  If we are following what we have come to know as our soul’s truth, a truth we have found through our search for meaning, rooted in our experiences of the interconnected web of all existence, we will begin to find new space, new sheltering walls that are expansive beyond belief.

My beloved and I have bought and moved into four homes over our lifetime together. Each time, we ultimately found the house that in some way reflected what was in our hearts. We found sheltering walls for our lives, for our family.  Not a single one of those moves came without great stress and suffering, yet all resulted in new-found faith in life, community and love. So far.  But, it has happened with such consistency that I have begun to trust the process of such changes. I don’t necessarily look forward to the next one, but I don’t necessarily fear it, either.

Are the walls of your life today those that shelter you, or  have you outgrown them?  Is it time to rearrange things or time for a move?  Can you begin to find within yourself what those next sheltering walls will feel like?

Bob Patrick

This entry was posted in Sheltering Walls and tagged , . Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *